Multiple People Working on Assembly

[DRoam]

I'm sure this has been asked before but I wasn't quite sure how to search for it.

The current structure at my workplace is that all of our Inventor files are stored on a network drive to which all our computers have access. These network drives are mapped on our PCs, so we just access our Inventor projects and files as if they were on an external hard drive.

The probem is, now that there are multiple of us working on the same project, we're running into file conflicts. I'll be working in the main assembly, my co-worker will be working in a sub-assembly. He makes changes and saves. I update the main assembly. But his changes aren't reflected. That's one issue.

But that's nothing compared to this: I'm working in the main assembly. I do some re-structuring with promotions and demotions. I attempt to save all my changes and close... only to find out that I can't save my changes because my co-worker is also in the main assembly, either simply to reference it or possibly to make a change. Last time this happened, I just closed the assembly hoping I had saved my major changes before my co-worker had opened it, but this was not the case. It took me almost an hour to fix the mess that had been caused by the promotions and demotions that weren't saved in the main assembly.

I write that long explanation to ask this: what is the best way to avoid these file-sharing conflicts? Is implementing the Vault our best option? Or is there something simpler? If the Vault is our best bet, how does that work? Can I work in the main assembly while my co-worker opens it for reference, or opens a sub-assembly of it to make modifications?

Any suggestions or information would be appreciated. Thanks!

[ampster402]

Vault which can be used to control who can work on a file

or

develop a process where each of you copy your files down to your individual pc's in order to work on them, and then figure out how to merge everything back together (good luck!)

I would not attempt to try my 2nd option.  You should never have two people working on the same file at the same time.  Same assy might be OK depending on whos working on what, but then you're depending on someone to keep things straight, not a good idea.

The way Vault works is it is installed on a dedicated server (required IRC).  All your users would be setup within Vault and given appropiate privilages depending on their job requirements.

When someone needs to work on a file, they "check it out" of Vault.  Vault places a copy of the file on their local pc.  The user makes any changes, saves and then checks the file back into Vault.

It can still get messy if you have two people working on an assy, ie, one part within the assy determines the design for another part.  It may not like it if two different people attempt to work on both of those two part files I just mentioned at the same time.

There's a slight learning curve to using Vault but it's not that bad.

[cbenner]

Sounds like Vault is your best bet.  Get someone knowledgeable to help you implement a strategy using it to manage your projects.  It sounds like your workflows are a bit complex.  But simply put, if you have something (an assembly or sub-assembly) checked out, no one else can save changes to it... they can open it read only and view it... but that's about it.

Vault Professional also gives you life cycle and revision control and Engineering Change Orders... lots of good options.  But Vault is not something to just jump into on your own, not for the faint of heart... so to speak.  On the Vault forums here there are quite a few good knowledgeable people who can and will help, and/or you could also hire a consultant of some sort, maybe through a reseller.

Good luck!

[DRoam]

Thank you both for the input! One quick question about Vault.

Say I have a master assembly, call it MasterAssembly. Within MasterAssembly are several sub-assemblies, call them SubAssembly1, SubAssembly2, etc. Say I have MasterAssembly open, and I'm working with the constraints and adding in some parts. I'm not touching SubAssembly2. If I have MasterAssembly checked out so I can do these edits, is it possible for my co-worker to check out SubAssembly2 on his computer so he can make edits to it, even though it's a part of MasterAssembly, since I don't actually have SubAssembly2 open for editing myself?

This scenario happens often where I work. It's a pretty crucial part of our workflow, so it would be nice to know from the get-go if Vault will allow this.

Thanks for any help!

[swalton]

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@DRoam wrote:

Thank you both for the input! One quick question about Vault.

Say I have a master assembly, call it MasterAssembly. Within MasterAssembly are several sub-assemblies, call them SubAssembly1, SubAssembly2, etc. Say I have MasterAssembly open, and I'm working with the constraints and adding in some parts. I'm not touching SubAssembly2. If I have MasterAssembly checked out so I can do these edits, is it possible for my co-worker to check out SubAssembly2 on his computer so he can make edits to it, even though it's a part of MasterAssembly, since I don't actually have SubAssembly2 open for editing myself?

This scenario happens often where I work. It's a pretty crucial part of our workflow, so it would be nice to know from the get-go if Vault will allow this.

Thanks for any help!

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Short Answer: yes.

You can still install Vault Basic (the one that comes with the suites) on a windows 7 or 8 machine to get an idea of how it works.  That might be worth doing on a small project just to test it out.

There can be a few gotcha's, mainly around Inventor wanting to save a file that Vault says it shouldn't, but usually it works well.

We use it every day with 5 enginers and designers.

[The_Angry_Elf]

You desperately need Vault, no doubt.

Feel free to give me or one of our offices a call (shameless sales plug), we can get you set up and these issues will be a thing of the past.

[karthur1]

Vault is what you need.  Vault Basic is included with the Product Design Suite and is more than capable to get you going.  You can always move up to Workgroup or Pro if/when the need arises.

There are two component to Vault.  The server and the client.  You could install the Vault server (called Autodesk Data Management Service.. aka ADMS) on the server that you already are sharing (if it mets the system requiremnts). Next, you have to instal the Vault client on each users workstation.  You should use a single Inventor project file (ipj).  There is several articles that describe this workflow. Here is how to set up th ipj.

If you decide to go this route and  have other questions, there is a Vault forum that you can ask specific questions.

Good Luck!

Kirk

[karthur1]

Here is a good article on how to create a single Inventor project for vault.

Kirk

[salariua]

You seem to have all the answers but I will share my experience as well.

We had whole office working on the same assembly (pretty big >15000 components) from a network without Vault. The key is to only save what you modify and let other know so that they can use Inventor / Manage / Refresh to update all parts modified behind their back.

Depending on who is working you could use derive or shrinkwrap as well.

My piping engineer will not need the whole assembly and he can work on a shrinkwrap substitute and update the shrinkwrap every once in a while. The guy doing the electrics doens't need whole model as wel.

Good Luck.